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Teachers strikes
Insights You have a right to know - but just try asking : By Simon Campbell http://www.phillyburbs.com/pb-dyn/news/322-01202008-1474182.html in January 2008 The ability to obtain public records from a government agency is one of the foundations of a free nation. The Pennsylvania Legislature is debating a new and supposedly improved open records act. My experience with the existing right-to-know law in obtaining public information from school districts leads me to believe that not too much will change with the new law. Why? Because getting access still comes down to dealing with government employees and their different personalities. Unless they work in national security, public employees' salaries and job-related information are a matter of public record. Courts and government rules have long since determined that taxpayers have a “significant interest” in seeing how their public employees are paid. You have a right to know that Pennsbury teacher and union President George Miller pulls down an annual salary and benefits package worth $107,454. The Open Records Law is also clear in stating that a requester does not need to explain why he or she wants a public record, and the government agency cannot deny the request based on the requester's intended use of the public record. When I first started requesting the individual names and salaries of all teachers in school districts, I was shocked to witness the games that some administrators started playing. The most annoying scenario is when a superintendent decides to waste tax dollars by passing the request onto the school solicitor to mail out impressive letterhead, and engage in several ludicrous rounds of deliberation before eventually complying. Then there's the Morrisville School District, which initially sent me a password-protected file. They were clearly trying to control how the public record might be used. How appalling! A government agency believing that a public record is its property to control. One superintendent tried to “protect” his district's teachers from the supposed horror of their names and salaries being posted on www.stopteacherstrikes.org (he had figured that part out). So he sent me a password protected file that also included teachers' years of service — which had not been requested. Good grief. Another government chief trying to dictate how he wants public information presented. What is it about the first amendment to the Constitution that these people don't understand? The right-to-know law meanwhile states that duplication fees for copying a public record must be comparable to “local business entities.” The biggest joke of all in this regard is Lower Makefield. The supervisors have a policy that charges the public 25 cents per page. Go anywhere from Staples to OfficeMax and you'll pay no more than 10 cents. So I told the township that I was thinking of taking them to court for violating the right-to-know law. You'll love their answer. They dug up a court case which they said allowed them to use fellow government agencies as comparable “business entities.” In other words, if all local governments are in collusion on charging outlandish copy fees then they are theoretically in the clear! I found out that the Pennsbury School District is charging 8 cents per page and that my school district does compare itself to copying charges in the private sector. Good for them. So Lower Makefield supervisors could still be in trouble. I guess I could sue them to stop them from fleecing the public, but it would be far more preferable if they just changed their policy to comply with the law. It remains totally inexcusable that Lower Makefield supervisors charge the public three times more money to copy a public record, than the Pennsbury School District charges. The unfortunate reality of public records law is that obtaining information depends too heavily on one's tenacity in dealing with government officials. It really shouldn't be this way. But perhaps the most bizarre reaction I have seen with open records was when a unionized teacher angrily said: “Why don't you post your salary on the Internet?” To which I replied: “Just as soon as my neighbors pay my salary I'd be delighted to.” For some reason this reply only made him angrier. How strange. Editor's note: Pennsbury Superintendent Paul Long confirmed the value of the union president's salary and benefit package within 30 minutes of our phone call. Simon Campbell, Lower Makefield, is president of StopTeacherStrikes, Inc. (http://www.stopteacherstrikes.org/)